Bloomington, Ill. - There were reasons to smile all around after the Saint Xavier University men's track team participated in the Titan Open meet at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill., this past Saturday. The distance-medley relay (DMR) team, consisting of sophomore Brandon Hummer (Willowbrook, Ill./Hinsdale South), seniors Chris Spencer (Frankfort, Ill./Eastern Illinois/Lincoln-Way East) and Emmanuel Gonzalez (Chicago, Ill./St. Laurence) and sophomore Matt Rychel (Tinley Park, Ill./Andrew) qualified for the NAIA National Indoor Championship on March 4, by running 10:25.16. The time surpassed the NAIA's "A" standard qualification time of 10:23.45, which marked the first time in school history a SXU men's relay team has met the "A" standard.

Additional Saint Xavier University highlights from this meet included: Hummer and Rychel coming back in the 800-meter runs in eighth and ninth places, respectively, with times of 2:01.0, and sophomore Andy Peters (Yellow Springs, Ohio/Yellow Springs) running a solid 'double' in the mile and 3000-meter run in times of 4:39 (10th place) and 9:35 (eighth place), respectively. SXU men's track coach Ed McAllister was elated with his team's performance.

"We narrowly missed reaching the qualifying time (missing by .09 seconds) back in December and have been gearing up to accomplish our goal at this meet," said McAllister. "I credit both Brandon and Manny (Emmanuel) with making some calculated racing decisions that proved to be pivotal to our success. I feel that this team will only get better as time passes." Saint Xavier will train this week in preparation for the Chicagoland Championships hosted by The University of Chicago on Saturday, February 13. The meet is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start.